After a friend and I both said we were going to watch the Republican National Convention (RNC) as it was getting underway last week, I soon reported by text that I had lasted a minute. She responded, “we had 10 seconds and are already wondering” after which I confessed that I had rounded up from what was, in reality, about 20 seconds. Talking with two other friends on the convention’s third night, one said she didn’t last ten or fifteen seconds and I think the other said five.
I don’t know about them, but I am the Spiritual Workout guy. I am the consciousness guy. I write The Conscious Politics Sunday Newsletter. I’ll talk all day to anyone who will listen about the virtues of practicing compassion, which often simply means being willing and able to, you guessed it, listen. Yet I was all talk-to-the-hand, viscerally resisting listening to any of it. So what gives? Perhaps what gives is a perfect opportunity for a conscious politics perspective (mine) of my big, political “no, thank you.”
I submit to you, because it’s germane to the story, that I believe wholeheartedly that our president is utterly unfit and unqualified for office and, as such, should not be reelected under any circumstances. Hear my personal beliefs: “he’s unfit;” “he’s unqualified;” “he should not be reelected.” Conscious politics practice and these pages will repeatedly insist that we all be able to discuss politics at the level of belief — particularly with those with whom we disagree. Sometimes minds are changed, often they are not, and that’s when we agree to disagree — without judgment or vitriol.
Yet I was all talk-to-the-hand, viscerally resisting listening to any of it.
In the case of the televised programming which was, obviously, not a conversation, it turns out my unwillingness to listen wasn’t because I was not being compassionate, it was because I had already agreed to disagree with anyone who advocates in any way for a second term for the incumbent president — even if I hadn’t quite grokked it at the time. I’m just not interested, which is why 20 seconds was enough. But wait, there’s more. Much more, actually, as it pertains to looking at this scenario through the lens of some of our concepts.
• Intentions matter and choices abound so it’s more than disinterest. I am a fierce guardian of my time and energy and I intend at all times to invest it in people and endeavors that light me up. That intention helps me to choose in any given moment where to invest my time and energy. Somehow, the RNC did not make the cut last week.
• I have to admit: when I hear people advocate for a second term for the president, particularly partisan supporters and surrogates (I didn’t say sycophants) in various settings including the RNC, it sounds like complete lunacy wholly divorced from reality as I experience it. But that’s just me. The hyper-discordant sound in my ears (we’ll get to the feeling in my stomach) is evidence, I would argue, that my beliefs and the speakers’ beliefs are not aligned. I think the term is polar opposites. But my compassion oozes out for real by not judging them in any way, shape, or form. They have every right to have the beliefs they have just like I do and just like you do.
• Speaking of polar opposites, I often find the degree of polarization that our society has devolved into these days to be shocking and to feel very uncomfortable. Yet my practice does not allow me to lament it, really, at all. By practicing presence, I accept things as they are, without judgment. I also know that everything means what we make it mean (i.e., beliefs matter). My belief is that polarization is not the end of the line but, rather, an integral part of the process of the human transformation that is underway. This particular belief insures that I don’t freak out about the polarization (such as it is).
• With disparities on full display, it’s actually infinitely easier to be about the business of deciding, individually and collectively, where to go from here. The law of attraction is always on and intentions matter and I have gotten pretty good at shifting my attention to thinking about the society I’d prefer to live in. This is where we’ve talked about having paragraphs top of mind and at the ready. You have some, I’m sure.
• There is also the discerning between old and new consciousness project, rooted in our ability, again, to listen to inspiration. A punched-in-the-stomach feeling I feel within seconds of listening is all I personally need to know it’s time to walk away from a possible food fight with a being whose consciousness is in hospice.
Conscious politics is, as I’ve said, about being able to watch the news without our heads exploding and our hearts breaking. These practices certainly help me, I have no idea about my friends, but I’m most interested, of course, in what they say to you.
NOTE: The next Spiritual Workout for Politics & Current Events will take place on Tuesday, September 15, 2020 from 5:00-6:30pm Pacific / 8:00-9:30pm Eastern. CLICK HERE to sign up as my guest by using the coupon code “SWP2020,” which will render the fee $0. I will revel in welcoming you to what is, basically, a live, interactive version of this newsletter.